A SOLIHULL schoolboy who raped a 12-year-old girl by getting her to perform a sex act on him has escaped a custodial sentence.

A SOLIHULL schoolboy who raped a 12-year-old girl by getting her to perform a sex act on him has escaped a custodial sentence.

The 15-year-old boy, who sat in front of the dock with his mother, admitted raping the girl during an incident near Solihull ice rink in March.

He entered his plea on the basis that, although it was still an offence of rape because of her age, the act had been consensual, which was not accepted by the prosecution.

But after reading a report on the boy, the Judge gave him a two-year supervision order and ordered him to register as a sex offender for two-and-a-half years.

Bernard Linnemann, prosecuting, said the girl and defendant both went to the same school, but were two years apart, and in March she was with friends outside shops near Solihull ice rink when the boy came out of a chip shop.

In a video-taped interview the tearful girl said he told her he wanted to talk to her on her own, so they walked round the corner and stood by the side of some recycling bins.

"He started kissing me. Then he put his hands on my shoulders."

A sex act then took place before she rushed back round the corner to her friends.

Asked by the policewoman interviewing her if it was something she had wanted to do, she sobbed and replied: "No."

But questioned via a television link by Kevin Grego, defending, the girl accepted she had not said anything to indicate she was not willing to do what the boy wanted her to do.

Mr Grego said: "The real issue in this case is that it appears to be two children who are experimenting in sexual matters in a way which is entirely inappropriate."

He pointed out when he was spoken to by police the boy was 'entirely frank' and his candour went beyond what had been disclosed to him by officers.

Sentencing the boy, Judge Cole told him: "She is someone who is completely honest, and was perhaps in awe of you.

"You behaved in a quite disgusting and inappropriate way, and one can well imagine her distress, but the prosecution cannot prove she did not consent to what was going on."